Residencies

National Football Museum Artist Residencies see artists working within different footballing communities. This programme aims to involve a wide range of clubs and regions nationally from grassroots to the top-flight! See our current artist residencies below:

Breaking Ground
Archaeologist Jason Wood and artist Neville Gabie’s unique project at Bradford Park Avenue’s former ground.

Breaking Ground: Goalmouth excavation at former Bradford Park Avenue ground.

In November 2013, Park Avenue football ground, a long-forgotten time capsule of Bradford’s social history, began to be unearthed when archaeologist Jason Wood and artist Neville Gabie conducted the first ever archaeological excavation of a football goalmouth and goalpost.

The wealth of history associated with Bradford Park Avenue, the landmark design of the stadium by Archibald Leitch, and its relative intactness after more than 40 years of neglect, provides a perfect opportunity to develop a high-quality art and heritage project.

In September 2015, Jason Wood and Neville Gabie return to the site for a further week’s work. This year will involve excavations of other parts of the former football ground, including the dug outs, demonstrations of geophysical surveying techniques, and examination of objects and other historical memorabilia. Alongside the archaeologists will be several artists working in response to the discoveries, history and context of the football club. Read more.

Mowbot.
Matthew Plummer-Fernandez (residency with Forest Green Rovers F.C.)

Artist Matthew Plummer-Fernandez meets Forest Green Rovers’ robot mower.

Award-winning artist Matthew Plummer-Fernandez is given unprecedented access to Forest Green Rovers F.C. where he will seek to understand and befriend their famous robot lawnmower.

The Mowbot’s own algorithmically determined movements on the field will be tracked, recorded and visualised. Sense data from the Mowbot will be taken for analysis and combined with environmental data over one season to create a unique robot’s-eye-view of Forest Green Rovers F.C.

Part of National Football Museum’s National Football Residency programme supported by public funds from Arts Council England.

Unruly Pitch.
Jen Southern
Artist residency with Workington Uppies and Downies Community
In collaboration with Chris Speed, Anais Moisy and Chris Barker

Uppies & Downies game, Workington, 2015. Photograph by Stuart Roy Clarke

Unruly Pitch is a new project to digitally map one of England’s last remaining mass-football games. Using GPS devices, the movement of players is recorded and visualized revealing an intense game without rules, using the streets, becks and woodland of Workington as the football pitch.

Replica ball made by Shane Ball and Mark Rawlinson. Uppies and Downies photographs by Stuart Roy Clarke.

Thanks to Uppies and Downies: Glen Adams, Jamie Beaumont, Joe Clark, Richard Hodgson, Andrew Mitchell, Dean Norris and Nathan Richards.

Uppies & Downies ball engraved with players’ GPS data. Unruly Pitch, 2015.